Official Kit Supplier/Designer: Le Coq Sportif

Uniform Colors: Red Shirts, Blue Shorts, Black Socks

Photo From: Todo Sobre La Seleccion Espanola, Felix Martialay, 2006

Notes:

-Match number 492 for France and number 355 for Spain.

-France qualified from this European Championship qualifying group. This loss effectively eliminated Spain from the 1992 UEFA Euro Finals. The last Tournament Spain had failed to qualify was the 1974 World Cup.

-Spain’s next victory over France would be a 2-1 Friendly win on March 28, 2001 at Valencia.

No players who were present in this match took part in that one.

-This was the last match between the two nations at Paris’ Parc des Princes.

Starting 1998 in preparations for the World Cup in France, Stade de France in Saint Denis near Paris would become France National team’s official home venue. Coincidentally the inauguartion match would be vs. Spain (1-0 win) on January 28, 1998.

France players: Blanc and Deschamps Spain players: Zubizaretta and Amor were the players still remaining from that match.

Photo : from Onze-Mondial, March 1991

-The only players who became national team managers were Frenchmen Blanc and Fernandez.

Blanc is the current national team manger of France.

Fernandez is the current national team manger of Israel.

-Spain’s Rafael Martin Vasquez was unavailable for this match.He would eventually join France’s Olympique Marseille for 1992-93 season .

He would be teammates at OM with Amoros, Boli, Cssoni, Sauzee, Durand, Deschamps and Angloma.

- Frenchman Christian Perez was unavailable for this match.

Frenchman Philippe Vercruysse of Olympique Marseille, who was thought to be in Platini’s plans, also was injured by the time the match took place.

-The following French players played in the Spanish La Liga in their careers :Laurent Blanc (Barcelona), Deschamps and Angloma (both Valencia).

Luis Fernandez managed Athletic Bilbao and Real Betis.

-Laurent Blanc became teammates at FC Barcelona with Amor and Bakero.

-None of the players in either team were playing for foreign clubs.

-Emilio Butragueno and Jean-Pierre Papin became their respective league’s top goalscorer that season.

-This was France’s fourth straight victory in their qualifying group. They went on to win all eight matches.

-France had been unbeaten since losing to Yugoslavia 2-3 on November 16, 1988. Their next loss would be on February 19, 1992 vs. England 0-2. A Nineteen match unbeaten streak.

-Both managers were former Ballon d’Or winners. Luis Suarez in 1960 and Platini in 1983,1984 and 1985.

Both were UEFA European Championship winners. Suarez in 1964 and Paltini in 1984.

Both played in Italy’s Serie A, Suarez with Internazionale Milano FC and Platini with Juventus FC Torino.

Photo : from Onze-Mondial, March 1991

-Frenchman Eric Cantona started this match and the following versus Albania, despite not being a regular player for his club Olympique de Marseille.

-This was Frenchman Bernard Pardo’s last match for France. Within weeks of this match, he was injured and missed the rest of the season. He never fully recovered and eventually retired injured.

-Four days after this match, on February 24, 1991, former Spanish international Hector Rial passed away.

-Both Fernandez and Amoros had Spanish ancestory. In fact Fernandez had obtained French Citizenship in his teens.

Bernard Pardo’s father and Cantona’s mother also had Spanish origins. As well as abscent Christian Perez’s grandparents.

-France played a 4-3-3 formation.

France changed defensive tactical formation in the second half. Boli started the match as right back, but in the second half played in the center and man-marked Butragueno instead of Goicoetchea. In the second half Amoros played as right back and marked Goicoetchea and Casoni marked Bakero.

-Afterwards, French manager Platini admitted that the score did not reflect the difference between the teams and that Spain was one of the best teams that France had played in a while.

Official Kit Supplier/Designer: Umbro

Uniform Colors: White Shirts, Navy Blue Shorts, White Socks

Notes:

-Match number 498 for Holland and number 698 for England.

-Holland and Norway qualified from this World Cup qualifying group. This loss effectively eliminated England from the 1994 World Cup Finals. The last World Cup England had failed to qualify was the 1978 tournament.

This loss was England’s fourth loss of the calendar year.

-This was England’s first match in Holland since a Friendly on November 5, 1969 in Amsterdam that England won 1-0.

-The previous match between the two nations was a 2-2 tie on April 28, 1993 World Cup Qualifier at Wembley.

Holland players: De Goey, Frank De Boer, Wouters, Winter, Rijkaard, Bergkamp, Overmars and De Wolf and England players: Adams, Palmer, Ince, Platt and Merson were the players still remaining from that match.

David Platt scored one of England’s goals.

Dennis Bergkamp scored in both matches.

-England’s previous victory over Holland was a 2-0 win on May 25, 1982 at Wembley.

Frank Rijkaard was the only player from either team that played in that match.

-Holland’s previous victory over England was a 3-1 win in UEFA Euro Championships in Dusseldorf, West Germany on June 15, 1988.

Holland players: Rijkaard, Wouters, Ronald Koeman, Erwin Koeman and England player Tony Adams were the players still remaining from that match.

-The next match between the two nations would be on June 18, 1996 at Wembley during the UEFA Euro Championships.

The match ended as a 4-1 win for England.

Holland players: Ronald De Boer, Winter and Bergkamp and England players: Seaman, Adams, Ince and Platt were the players still remaining from that match.

Photo from:Onze-Mondial, November 1993

-The only players who became national team managers were Rijkaard and Erwin Koeman.

Rrijkaard eventually became the national team manger of Holland. He presently has been appointed as manager of Saudi Arabia.

Erwin Koeman managed the national team of Hungary.

-England Captain Stuart Pearce missed this match through injury. David Platt captained England in his absence.

Stuart Pearce was playing for relegated club Nottingham Forest FC.

- The most controversial moment of this match occurred on the hour mark. David Platt with clear sight of the goal was brought down by Dutch captain Ronald Koeman right outside of the box. England players protested for a penalty, however, replays showed that the foul did occur just outside of the box. According to the rules, Koeman should have been sent off; instead he received a yellow card.

Later the referee admitted he would have given penalty kick had not been overruled by his linesman; the decision for free kick seems justified.

Photo from:World Soccer, April 1994

- A few minutes after this incident Holland were awarded a free kick and Koeman who should have been sent off earlier scored the free kick with a chip.

It was a twice taken free kick, the first time there was encroachment in the English wall and Paul Ince was booked. The second time Koeman chipped it.

-England’s next match vs. San Marino on November 17th would be Graham Taylor’s last match in charge. He resigned on November 23, 1993.

-Then little known Dutch manager Dick Advocaat was originally hired in 1992 for the qualification campaign only. He was due to step aside after qualification was secured in favor of Dutch legend and then FC Barcelona coach Johan Cruyff. In early 1994, due to unspecified reasons Johan Cruyff refused to manage Holland at the World Cup. Therefore, Dick Advocaat was made permanent manager. He managed Holland until the end of the calendar year 1994. Beginning in 1995, he was appointed as manager of PSV Eindhoven.

He has since managed the national teams of Belgium (very briefly), Russia as well as Scottish club Rangers FC Glasgow and Russian club FK Zenit St-Petersburg.

Photo From: Forever England, A History of the National Side, Authors Mark Shaoul, Tony Williamson

-The Dutch also had Marco van Basten out injured. In fact he missed that entire season and the entire following season. He was forced to retire in August 1995.

-Former Dutch captain Ruud Gullit was also missing for Holland. He had retired from the national team after the previous meeting between the two nations on April 28, 1993.

Gullit, who had transferred that season from AC Milan to Sampdoria, was having a renaissance season with English teammate David Platt and future England manager the Swede Sven-Goran Eriksson.

He was coaxed out of retirement just before the World Cup Finals. However, after one friendly match, he retired again and this time for good and missed the World Cup.

-Erwin Koeman was making his first appearance for Holland since May 27, 1992 (3-2 win vs. Austria).

-Starting that season, English goalkeeper David Seaman was once again established as the starting goalkeeper. He was previously the number one goalkeeper for the first half of 1991 only. He would remain England’s number one until the end of 2002.

-The following Dutch players played in the English Premier League in their careers :Ed De Goey (Chelsea), John De Wolf (Wolverhampton), Marc Overmars and Dennis Bergkamp (both Arsenal), Ulrich van Giobbel (Southampton) , Bryan Roy (Nottingham Forrest) and Wim Jonk (Sheffield Wednesday)

-Marc Overmars and Bergkamp became teammates at Arsenal with Seaman, Adams, Platt, Merson and Ian Wright.

-The dutch lineup contained two pairs of brothers: Ronald and Erwin Koeman and Frank and Ronald De Boer.

-English players Dorigo, Palmer and Sharpe played their last ever matches for England.

-English player Paul Gascoigne missed this match through suspension.

-England striker Les Ferdinand was also missing through injury, The English coaching staff had requested to have Ferdinand present by having an epidural in his back. However, his Club (Queens Park Rangers)’ manager Gerry Francis opposed it

-Ronald Koeman, Wouters and frank De Boer all eventually coached Dutch club Ajax Amsterdam.

-Dutch midfielder Aron Winter was teammates with the absent Gascoigne at Italian Serie A club Lazio. He also eventually became teammates with Englishman Paul Ince at Internazionale FC Milano during 1996/97 season.

-Dennis Bergkamp won the English Footballer of the year awardin 1998.

-For their following fixture on November 17, 1993, Holland defeated Poland away 3-1 and secured qualification to the World Cup.

-Holland had been unbeaten since losing to Norway 1-2 on September 23, 1992. Their next loss would be on April 20, 1994 vs. Republic of Ireland 0-1. An eleven match unbeaten streak.

-England manager Graham Taylor had agreed to participate in a documentary for the World Cup Qualification. As part of the agreement he had consented to wear a microphone. The documentary which was titled “The Impossible Job” instead became controversial and if anything shed a more negative light on Taylor and England squad.

The programme saw Taylor use one particular expletive 38 times as he railed against players/officials, while giving the nation the catchphrase, "do I not like that".

Some players claimed they were aware of the cameras, others said they didn’t.

England Assistant manager Lawrie McMenemy was visibly opposed to the idea. While, the other assistant Phil Neal, claimed that the documentary damaged his reputation and made it difficult for future employment.

For this particular match, the cameras and microphone recorded Graham Taylor going over to the fourth official at the end of the match and telling him to “thank” the referee for being responsible for his impending sacking.